[TWEAK] Save gigabytes of space using iPod Hack

[Head Tax]

I didn't really know what to call this tutorial but whatever it doesn't matter too much. This will also take quite a while to do but it's worth it. Tutorial to be used on Windows Vista

First off, on iTunes whenever you import a song and then sync it with your iPod it links the song from the file on your computer and puts it on your iPod. So iTunes never actually contains the full song, only links to the songs on your computer. I am going to teach you how to link iTunes to the songs on your iPod so you don't have yo keep two copies of the one song wasting space on your computer.

Firstly delete all your songs off iTunes without your iPod plugged in:



Click 'Remove'. Then make sure your iPod does not automatically sync with iTunes when plugged in.

Next Delete all the music you have stored on your computer that you use on your iPod

Now plug your iPod into your computer. Then go to 'My Computer':


When you click my Computer your iPod name should show up on it:


Click on it and you should see 4 folders and one notepad document. Ignore these. Click 'Organize>Folder and Search Options':


A box will pop-up, click the View tab on it and where it says 'Show Hidden Files and Folders' click:


Now go back to the folder we were in and a new folder called iPod_Control should have appeared:


Open it and you should see four more files the only one we will be using is 'Music':


When you open this folder there will be any number of randomly named folders containing randomly named songs:

The songs will have four random letters for there names though you should be able to tell roughly what they are by there artist and album names, which will show as normal.

Now open up iTunes and we are going to import everyone of these randomly named songs and every randomly named folders into iTunes. You shouldn't have to rename them:


And select the folder 'Music' we were looking at earlier:


And Sync your iPod.

Now instead of having two copies of the songs (one on your computer and one on your iPod) you only have one, thus saving you gigabytes of space. I'm not sure if this works for movies also but I can't try because I only have a iPod that plays songs. If anyone can investigate I would be most grateful. Hope this helped!

A Fagin Production

[Sharp Focus]

Cool man.

[Head Tax]

Did it work for you?

[Zarcu]

I actually have iTunes copy all my music to it when played and it organizes it self. I don't have to worry about this.

[Head Tax]

Oh oh, is there a way to do it automatically?

[Mizwax]

yes. just change your default music folder in itunes to your ipod's music folder.

but what happens when your ipod has some sort of strange corruption error or something and you have to reformat your ipod? this method isnt truely 100% safe.

[Head Tax]

Guess not. But it saves space.

[Carbon]

cool so when my ipod's hard drive crashes i will loose all of my music over saving a little bit of hd space? no thanks.

[Head Tax]

When was the last time your iPod crashed? Anyway you don't have to I was just showing you how.

[Venomous Fire]

iPods crash all the time lol..... and this is in no way a hack lol

easier tut would be

1. sync
2. tell it to stop syncing
3. delete music


none of the extra steps lol

[Head Tax]

Well this way is slightly more complicated.

[Forgoten Dynasty]

Quote: Originally Posted by Notix

When was the last time your iPod crashed? Anyway you don't have to I was just showing you how.

my ipod went in to a bootloop yesterday


i restore my ipod almost every week.

in fact i need to do it soon because my brother updated my itunes and multiplugins doesn't work with the most up to date one
and newer itunes 7 library are compatible with older itunes 7s

[Head Tax]

I hate my life.

[Mizwax]

lol @ notix. its a good idea, but not quite perfected.

heres what i do:

get an external hdd,
put all music on it,
redid the itunes library .xml file to work with the external hdd (i didnt want to do it the simple "add folder" way cause it would add music that is in my music folder that i dont want in itunes)
opened the new xml file in itunes
VIOLA!

[Captain_Greenbeard]

Quote: Originally Posted by Mizwax

lol @ notix. its a good idea, but not quite perfected.

heres what i do:

get an external hdd,
put all music on it,
redid the itunes library .xml file to work with the external hdd (i didnt want to do it the simple "add folder" way cause it would add music that is in my music folder that i dont want in itunes)
opened the new xml file in itunes
VIOLA!

I did same as above. Be very careful if you dont back up your music you will be severly pissed when it happens, trust someone whose had that luck twice. I've now got all my music stored on an exterrnal HDD.

[Mizwax]

Quote: Originally Posted by Captain_Greenbeard

I did same as above. Be very careful if you dont back up your music you will be severly pissed when it happens, trust someone whose had that luck twice. I've now got all my music stored on an exterrnal HDD.

that sucks. and for me, i had all kinds of music in my music folder that i didnt want in itunes, so i opened the .xml file (that tells itunes what songs are in the library and where to get them, etc) in dreamweaver and used the Find and Replace feature to find the old directory and replace it with my new one.

it worked perfect. if any one wants help with it, aim me: Mizwax92